Horrified and worried by image I saw on internet

LegacyUser

Please I need to get this off my chest...I am disgusted and worried now.

I was browsing a website earlier (stupidly I know) and browsing the beautiful women image board. A few pages in and I clicked on a thread, mostly of harmless naked women/softcore porn and I clicked on a thumbnail that looked innocent enough, until I actually saw the image! :mad: I won't go into it but suffice to say it was of an illegal kind!! :mad: I was horrified and disgusted and immediately closed it. I felt physically ill.

I have overwritten the entire browsers cache twice get rid of the image and I have reported the site to the Internet Watch Foundation. I don't know what else I can do. I am sick to my stomach that I actually saw such an image and immensely worried that I will get in trouble because of it. The post was reported by others and I understand those admins act quickly to delete these posts and report them to the authorities.

Please please note I am NOT a pervert! This was a complete accident and also my own stupidity for being on there in the first place. I am terrified of getting into trouble and feel terribly guilty!! Still feeling awful and angry over this.

Am I right to feel this guilty? Should I be worried?!

LegacyUser

I assume you mean that you saw an image of a person under the age of eighteen? If so, I wouldn't worry anymore about it. You did the right thing by reporting it but you shouldn't feel guilty. You didn't go looking for this, you didn't get off on it, you haven't morally done anything wrong.

If you're worried about being in trouble legally, I sincerely doubt the police will look at "Clicked on image , clicked off within 10 seconds" and see a pedophile. One image is unlikely to lead to any kind of prosecution, and even if it did it would have to at least be an image saved into your harddrive, not something on the internet that you clicked on once. By accident.

sKepTics_George

OP, Are you easily offended ?

There are some pretty sick things out in that wild, wild Internet
((does "internet" get a capital ?))

Denerick

You reported it to the internet watch foundation - in other words, you cannot get in trouble. Put it into its context. An ordinary citizen who reports a crime the moment he see's it by definition cannot be held culpabile for said crime. Chill out!

krudler

If everyone who accidentally clicked on a sick image on the net was a pervert we'd probably all be in jail right now, do you really think that clicking on 1, repeat 1 picture on a website is going to have the FBI absailing through your front windows? relax you did the right thing, you wont get in trouble.

*certain website* is a minefield though, dont go on there

ztoical

Seriously? OP whatever image you saw trust me I've seen worse...welcome to the internet. If I was a preve looking for illegal images I wouldn't be looking on . It is a big popular site with a lot of muppets posting on it but your not going to get something seriously hardcore and illegal as it's too easy to trace people through it...sadly the true sickos cover their tracks otherwise they'd all be in jail right now.

LegacyUser

The image was as illegal as they come. It involved children that's all I'll say! I think you get my drift. Reporting the website is no defence in law and I know that. (It was just the right thing to do.) Though I assume the image would be deleted by now, and reported to the US authorities.

I'm just worried since I clicked on it, it could come back to me in a few months in a bad way!

It's the Internet! People stumble across illegal content every day by accident or from their friends playing a prank on them. Anyone studying computer science will tell you this, especially those who frequent *certain website*.

Stop panicking and forget about it.

Denerick

If you're really really worried (I don't think you should be by the way, you've already reported the sick ****er behind this) then go into your local garda station. In the infinitely tiny possibility that you get a knock on the door in six months time, at least you'll be able to say then that you reported the incident to the maximum extent you were capable of.

Moonbeam

Please report it to hotline.ie

Lone Stone

Moonbeam wrote: »

Please report it to hotline.ie

How long is that site around , they really should inform people about place's to report this kind of thing, I remember when i was a kid and got my dial up internet lol... i was looking for some .. well you know what young teenage boys look for online and i came across some seriously ****ed up stuff and like the op was in a panic it horrific. But you know no one ever know's what to do when this happen's.

@ OP i wouldnt worry about it your not going to get branded a pedo and locked away im sure it happens a lot.

newmember2

sKepTics_George wrote: »

...((does "internet" get a capital ?))

Yes...yes it does...

LegacyUser

Don't worry about it. The authorities are interested primarily in the distributors of this material. They wouldn't waste their time tracking down the hundreds of thousands of people who viewed it. If they did have IP addresses of people who repeatedly traded or requested images, then those details would be passed on to the Gardaí and hard drives would likely be seized.

You have nothing to be guilty about, by the way. The whole issue of child pornography is an emotive one, and there is so much hysteria about it that innocent people like you are terrified that you will in some way be thought of as a paedophile, when in fact, you did nothing wrong. You didn't save it to your hard drive, or distribute it to people.

I have seen material such as this more than once, and reported it to hotline.ie, under my own name. That's all you can do with this stuff. You shouldn't be worried that they are going to come looking for you. Even if they did, what would they find? If they recovered the image, they would see that it was cached when you looked at it, and you immediately deleted it. This is all above board, they would see that you weren't looking for this stuff and saving it.

Danniboo

sKepTics_George wrote: »

OP, Are you easily offended ?

There are some pretty sick things out in that wild, wild Internet
((does "internet" get a capital ?))

Indecent images of children and you think that the OP must be easily offended to be disturbed by this? WTF?:eek:

Danniboo

sunflower27 wrote: »

In fairness, the post asking is the OP easily offended was before the OP said it was of children.

I thought it was obvious though?

Hrududu

From reading the OP I couldnt see how it could be anything but that.

Nevyn

Can we please stop mentioning the name of the site.
No need to give it publicity or to have this one linked with it in google searches.

Mike 1972

It is highly unlikely that the internet police would come after you for a single image. They are well aware how possible it is to download such a thing unwittingly. Its the people who do it hundreds/thousands of times they are really interested in (rightly so). You reported it to the Internet watch foundation (fair play BTW) Youve dont the right thing. Theres nothing more you can do so just move on and stop worrying.